The 21 most notorious murders in New Jersey history

A rabbi with a roving eye, a housewife whose secret ingredient was arsenic, a failing financial planner who requested cremations for the family that he killed (more economical), a real estate mogul in a nasty feud with a newsman: the Garden State has been home to some of the nation's most singular murderers, and some of the most horrifying acts of revenge, greed, jealousy, insanity, perversion and pure evil. Here are the 21 most notorious murders, crime sprees and serial killers in New Jersey history.

As fans of the blockbuster musical "Hamilton" are now acutely aware, Founding Father and architect of the American financial system Alexander Hamilton was mortally wounded in a duel with his longtime rival Aaron Burr, then Thomas Jefferson's vice president, on July 11, 1804 in Weehawken.

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The dueling pistols used by Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. (Courtesy New York Historical Society)

Hamilton died the next day in New York, and authorities in both New York and New Jersey indicted Burr for murder, although he was not convicted. Burr died on Staten Island in 1836 at 80.

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Charles K. Landis, the founder of Vineland, was a progressive, but apparently didn't take kindly to criticism. He shot and killed a local newspaper editor who opposed him, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity. (Courtesy Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society)

Fake news gets lethal, 1875

Vineland founder Charles K. Landis had a long-standing feud with Uri Carruth, the editor of the weekly Vineland Independent, but when Carruth published an editorial on March 20, 1875 that suggested a town leader was considering committing his wife to an insane asylum, all but naming Landis, Landis stormed the newspaper offices and shot Carruth in the back of the head. Landis was acquitted by reason of insanity (the sort that "never occurs with anyone unless he is very rich," according to the New Jersey attorney general at the time). He later developed Sea Isle City and died in 1900 at 67.